How Does Advertising Make Use of Linguistics - Assignment Example

Advertising is a big industry the world over and has evolved over the years to become an influential and highly complicated area of communication. The linguistic part in advertising is primarily more difficult since visuals are more or less universal the world over. Hence the language used in advertising has to well-thought out and should take into consideration factors like culture, race, gender, language and value systems. Otherwise it can be misinterpreted or misunderstood making the whole exercise of creating an ad or a campaign a waste of time and resources. How does advertising make use of linguistics? Introduction: Advertising has now evolved into a huge industry comprising a variety of media like print, visuals and sound and is present in practically every area of publishing in the world today. Advertisements are seen in a variety of environments like newspapers, magazines, trade journals, television, movie halls, and the internet. Moreover, it has now grown to the stature of a science with courses that specialize in how to create proper advertising text, visuals and campaigns. The text or linguistics referred to as copy plays an important aspect in the success or failure of an advertisement. It is a fact that some advertisements rely solely on visuals and sound to get a message across, but text still plays an important part in effective advertisements the world over. This paper looks at how the advertising industry makes use of linguistics in effective (or ineffective) communication. It can be seen that advertisers have to take into consideration a variety of factors like perception, culture, language, religious beliefs and other personal convictions and value systems when targeting a specific audience. Linguistics and advertising: Keiko (1999)1 in his seminal book on the advertising language analyses the language of written advertising in Britain and Japan; the author elaborately deals with the nature of communication and shows how communication takes place between the advertiser and the audience. The power of language to ‘persuade, convince and manipulate others’ have long been established (Tanaka xi). The author considers the Relevance theory as the best basis for understanding the language of advertisements. For Tanaka, metaphors and the extended use of words add to the force of language in advertising: “metaphors in advertising, and the extended use of words in the projection of the image of women in advertisements” contribute to the analysis of the force of language in advertising (Tanaka xii). Following Barthes argues that communication stems from encoding and decoding and that linguistic communication is comprised of connotations and denotations; however, Barthes is aware of the fact that a single signifier can create various signifieds for different people. Tanaka goes a step forward by stating that linguistic messages are polysemous and that ‘linguistic codes are not devoid of ambiguity” (Tanaka 3). For instance, advertisements where popular puns are employed, the linguistic message is left intentionally polysemous creating various impacts on the audience. The factors that can affect the understanding of linguistic messages include cultural knowledge, the audience’s pre-existing bodies of knowledge’, the intended goals of the speaker, and inferences (inferential knowledge). For Sperber and Wilson (1986) the primary goal of communication is to change ‘the cognitive environment of a hearer’-‘a set of facts which are manifest to an individual’ (Tanaka 18) which can culminate in altering the thoughts of the audience as well in the long run. Similarly, ostensive communication bears an element of guarantee of relevance as “human beings automatically pay attention to ostensive stimuli, because they are conditioned to turn their attention to what seems most relevant to them” (Tanaka 20). Emphasising on the importance of Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory in relation to advertisements, the author states that existing assumptions play crucial role in understanding newly presented information and therefore an utterance or linguistic component in advertisements have contextual effects (contextual implication, strengthening of existing assumptions, contradiction and elimination of old assumptions) that lead to the notion of optimal relevance which the advertiser aims at (Tanaka 23-24).However, it is imperative that the communicator (here the advertiser) makes use of stimulus that is relevant and appealing to the audience. Richards et al (2000)2, on the other hand, state that “the magic of advertising lies in its capacity to associate goods to values where there is ‘no real reference’ and that in advertising one tends to “find ‘a line of argument, though no reasoning or facts in the accepted sense’ and ‘a rush of language to the head, loose bastardised poeticising’ (Richards et al 56). Macaulay is of the opinion that advertising in general (and that includes linguistics) often hides facts and can even be misleading. Cleverly used words can lead to different signifieds in order to lure a reader into buying or at least getting interested in a product. The author states that “in particular, we are often happy to say something we hope will be misinterpreted so that we cannot be accused of lying (Page 102)3. This is often illustrated by the use of superlatives in the copy of the text. Simons et al state that the use of vague or even suggestive language often results in the reader being mislead about whether a particular product or service is indeed better than its competitors. The use of metaphors and similes in advertisements also result in a type of misleading text. The authors provide an example of Post Blueberry Morning Serial where the text equates the taste of the product with summer. The question here is “what does summer taste like” (Simons, Morreale & Gronbeck 290)4? While it can be argued that summer is a pleasant time of the year especially for people who experience cold weather and heavy snowfall, equating taste with weather is an example of being creatively misleading. But on the other hand, it is creative and imaginative in the sense that a connection is created between a pleasant season and the taste of the product. Here again, it is imaginative use of the concept of signifieds. The copy can provide an impression of a pleasant or welcome taste. This signifies the power of a language to generate different emotions in people with regard to their individual tastes. Take another angle for the above advertisement. If the same meaning was used to promote a product in a region that has a predominantly tropical climate, the effect would have been different. Summer, to people in those regions is hot and unpleasant and a food product that ‘tastes like summer’ would not evoke pleasant memories and tastes. The point to be noted is that so many factors can play its hand in effective advertising and linguistics should take them into consideration when creating promotional text. Linguistics is also used differently when targeting genders, according to Hall and Bucholtz. The authors claim that male oriented advertising tends to be more explicit or even be seen as degrading to the opposite gender (Hall & Bucholtz 212)5. But here again, clever use of linguistics can cover up an intended or unintended gender bias. An example would be the Cutty Sark advertisement which goes as “"You can usually tell how eager someone is to receive a gift by the way they open it" (Artz, Munger & Purdy)6. The authors state that this is a fine example of a gender free line, but one which can be interpreted differently by both sexes in the sense that ‘someone’ can either be a male or female. Cook observes that linguistics in advertising is not to steady a factor in communication, but to sway (Cook 80)7. So, text in advertisements are not bound by the rules in literature. This provides a lot of freedom for advertisers with regard to text and visuals. Another factor that advertisers take into account with regard to linguistics is variations in culture. The United States, UK, and some other nations have a large number of immigrants that can be considered to be a unique market in itself. It is easier to communicate using visuals rather than text in such cases. Moreover major international brands like Pepsi or Coke are easily identified irrespective of culture. There are literally hundreds of examples where proper homework with regard to linguistics have had negative results with regard to advertising. EA Sports, for example used the words “challenge everything” in order to promote their games. But this raised serious issues with regard to religious beliefs. Opinions that such words can create a situation where religious beliefs can also be challenged surfaced in many places. There are also instances where proper translation of a particular word had caused embarrassment to the manufacturer. It should be noted that the United States has a large Hispanic population. Advertisers, publishers, and even government agencies now use Spanish to communicate with this section of the population. A manufacturer of ink wanted to convey the fact that their bottles were leak proof and customers could avoid embarrassment in front of others due to ink leakage. But the word embarrassment was translated to ‘embarazar’, which in Spanish means to become pregnant. The end result was that readers thought the advertisement was for a contraceptive rather than for ink. These instances are not at all comprehensive instances of cultural gaffes of improper linguistics, but illustrative of what may happen if proper care in translation is not ensured. Conclusion: Effective advertising can be a complex task whether or not linguistics come into play. But it can be seen that the advertising world of today needs to take into consideration a lot of factors like culture, language, religions, and value systems into consideration when creating copy (linguistics) in advertisements. A word provided as a signifier can result in different or diverse signifieds. The linguistics used should take into consideration factors like gender and correct translation when creating advertisements for a specific target audience. While visuals are more universals, linguistics and language are not. Today’s world is characterized by globalization and free trade. This has resulted in one company having its presence in many markets characterized by cultural, religious, and social differences. In such a context, the linguistics part in advertising is all the more important for effective communication. Works Cited Cook. The Discourse of Advertising. Routledge, 1992.   Hall, Kira, and Mary Bucholtz. Gender articulated. Routledge, 1995.   Macaulay, Ronald K. S. The social art. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press US, 2006.   Simons, Herbert W., Joanne Morreale, and Bruce E. Gronbeck. Persuasion in society. SAGE, 2001.   Nancy Artz, Jeanne Munger & Warren Purdy. “Gender Issues in Advertising Language”. Women and Language 22. 29 September 2009 http://www.questia.com/read/5001882947?title=Gender%20Issues%20in%20Advertising%20Language# Tanaka, Keiko. Advertising language: a pragmatic approach to advertisements in Britain and Japan Linguistics/Media studies/Asian studies. Illustrated Edition: Routledge, 1999. Richards et al. The dynamics of advertising Volume 1 of Studies in consumption and markets. Illustrated Edition: Routledge, 2000. Read More